I was informd yesterday afternoon that you had done me the honor to name me as the successor of Mr. McHenry. While I avow the impression made on me by this additional mark of your confidence—and impression which no time will efface—I must pray you sir to withdraw the nomination. No man is more intimately persuaded than myself, of the wisdom of that political system, which has been adopted by...

I receivd to day your letter of the 20th inst & immediately transmitted to the secretary of the treasury a commission for Mr. Smith. After considering Mr. Kings letter of the 7th. of April it appears to me most adviseable still to press an amicable explanation of the 6th. article of our treaty with Britain. Whatever the present temper of the cabinet may be a moment may present itself in the...

I receivd yesterday a letter from Mr. King of which the inclosd is a copy. His number 67 to which he refers & which seems necessary in order to explain the present actual state of the negotiation with England has not yet been receivd. The letter which I now forward shows that some progress towards an agreement has been made which it may perhaps be necessary to understand before further...

The inclosd communication was transmitted to this department in a letter dated the 14th of Jany. last. In a letter receivd from Mr. Adams dated the 7th. of April at Berlin he says that the negotiations between France & Austria were not supposd to be entirely broken off. The points of difference were that France claimd the Rhine as a boundary & that Austria insisted positively on the total...

With this you will receive a copy of Mr. Kings letter No. 67 to which the letter formerly transmitted to you refers. If the proposition of paying a sum in gross to the British government in lieu of & in satisfaction for the claims of British creditors shoud be deemd to merit attention, can it afford just cause of discontent to France? You will receive also dispatches from the American envoys...

I transmit you two letters No. 71 & 72 received from Mr. King. Respecting the jewels for Tunis I think it proper to observe that or looking into the correspondence between this department and Consul Eaton I perceive a letter which states the demand of them as being an encroachment which ought to be resisted as long as possible but which in the last necessity must be submitted to, and in that...

I receivd by the last mail your letter of the 19th. inst inclosing several papers which are disposd of according to your directions. You will receive herewith a translation of the German letter which was addressd to you. The calculations & the poem referd to, it was deemd unnecessary to translate. The Spanish minister has on the part of his sovereign claimd the restoration of the Sandwich...

I receivd last night your letter of the 21st. inclosing one from Genl. Forrest & one from Mr. Wilmer which I return to you. As the applicants for the office of Marshal for this district are almost entirely unknown to me I thought it most proper to consult Mr. Stoddart on the subject. He says that Mr. Chase is, he beleives, qualified for the office, but that in his opinion it woud be...

I receivd to day your letter of the 23d. ultimo. As I am uncertain what will be your wish respecting the Marshal of Maryland after considering the opinion of Mr. Stoddart which I communicated to you some few days past, I shall not fill up the commission until I receive an answer to that letter. Altho this may be in a slight degree inconvenient yet I suppose the public service cannot suffer...

I have just receiv’d your letter of the 25th of July inclosing the recommendations of several gentlemen for the vacant office of Marshal for this district. I am sensible of the confidence you place in me, when you authorize me to fill the commission with the name of such person, as on the best information I can collect, shall appear most proper; & I shoud not have hesitated to insert the name...

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